"… DET HANDLAR OM ATT INTE RÖRA SIG PÅ SKUMMA PLATSER PÅ KONSTIGA TIDER" : En kvantitativ och kvalitativ studie av brottsjournalistik i Umeå

Sammanfattning: In recent times the so-called “no-go zones” and high-risk areas in Sweden have been a muchdebated subject both in the media and in politics. Is there any disparity in the way different urban areas are portrayed in the media, connected to their socio-economic status? That question is the starting point of this study which has sought to examine how areas in the city of Umeå, Sweden, are framed in the media, in newspaper articles about crime. To see how urban areas of varying socio-economic statuses are reported on, both quantitative and qualitative methods have been used combined with a theoretical framework containing perspectives such as framing and hegemony. A total of 3004 articles on murders and attempted murders in Umeå, spanning from 2002 until 2019 have been analysed using digital macro analysis. Furthermore, 89 articles reporting on two more recent murders related to domestic violence have been analysed using critical discourse analysis. Findings show that there are small differences in how much publicity crime in different urban areas generate, and which areas are name-given in the articles’ headlines. The main finding, however, is that the language used in the articles varies. In areas of lower socio-economic status, the violence is much more explicitly described, whilst in the areas of higher socio-economic status a more formal nondescriptive language is used to portray similar violence. This, in turn, risks portraying areas of lower socio-economic status as more dangerous than other areas and constructs those that inhabit these areas as a more deviant part of society, or indeed as deviating from society.